Work will start on Monday 24th April to remove the Guiding Star, the abandoned blue boat in Sutton Harbour.

Sutton Harbour Holdings plc has employed a specialist marine contractor to dismantle the vessel in the harbour because it is beyond seaworthy repair.

This follows a long-running legal process to obtain the necessary consents from regulatory authorities for independent removal of the vessel after the boat’s owner became untraceable, and to fund and organise a plan for the boat’s safe removal.

A small barge will be moored alongside the vessel on Monday and serve as a working platform. The Guiding Star will be dismantled with hand-held power tools to minimise debris in the water, and pieces of timber will be placed in skips and transferred to the Sugar House site for sorting before later removal by sea.

Pete Bromley, Harbour Master of Sutton Harbour, said: “Arranging the removal of this vessel has required securing the necessary consents which has been a very complex and lengthy process owing to the legal issues involved.

“The work is expected to take two to three weeks, with an additional few weeks spent sorting the dismantled sections of the boat on shore.

“Access to parts of the harbour footpath at East Quay may be temporarily restricted for brief periods during the next fortnight whilst skips are craned ashore, but these short interruptions will be managed on a daily basis to limit any disruption.”

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Since relocating the Fishmarket in 1995 our 'No Problems, only Solutions' approach to our customers has proved a winning formula for Plymouth Fisheries at Sutton Harbour. Many times we have had record landings of fish, crabs and scallops totalling annual amounts of over £19million.

This makes Plymouth the second largest Fishmarket in England by value and an incredibly important UK asset in the fisheries and fishing industry. This remarkable success story comes about at a time when many other ports in the country are in serious decline.